As superintendent of the 1,700-student Godfrey Lee School District, David Britten says he also doubles as the curriculum director.

Britten said he has one secondary school principal that
oversees three buildings and one elementary principal that supervises two
buildings.

So Britten is skeptical of reports that say consolidation of
smaller school districts could save schools millions.

"I'm tired of the simplistic battle war cries for
consolidation that don't factor in all the variables that are going to differ
from district to district," Britten said. "It doesn't solve the financial
problems you have in the state."

A new Michigan
State University study suggests that consolidation of school districts at
the county level could save about $612 million. Rural districts or
districts with fewer than 2,000 students would be the biggest winners, the study
states.

The study was done by the Education Policy Center at
Michigan State University.

"State
and local boards of education, operating under pressure to run schools efficiently
and meet national and state performance goals, must consider administrative
options such as consolidation or the coordination of services to reduce
operating costs and improve the
quality of education for all students," the study states.

Britten said many studies are too simplistic and don't take
into consideration things like raises for employees taking on additional
responsibilities and schools hiring additional bureaucrats for the larger
districts created.

Andrew Coulson, an adjunct fellow for the Mackinac Center,
authored a 2007 study on school
consolidation plans. He found that school costs would continue to rise unless
market incentives were introduced. Coulson wrote that a significant finding of
his study is that school officials maximized operating spending regardless of
the public demand for educational services.

Coulson said that while consolidation could save money in
theory, it wasn't practical because smaller districts would have to be adjacent
to each other to maximize savings.

Michael Van Beek, director of education policy at the
Mackinac Center, said what is underreported is that the state has been
consolidating for decades. Van Beek said there were about 5,000 districts in
1960. Today, there are 550.

"I think consolidating services will save money," Van Beek
said. "But consolidating districts, that's not a silver bullet and shouldn't be
considered. There is no evidence to show that consolidating districts will save
taxpayers in Michigan."

Van Beek said the MSU report wasn't applicable to this
state.

"It takes data from 20 years ago from a study in rural New
York and runs all the calculations based on current spending in Michigan," Van
Beek said.